A lot of people don’t like the Toastmasters International tool “FreeToastHost”. This is a free service to help a club to get a website off the ground. These days, a website is like a business card and every club needs one. Yes, A lot of the templates on this hosting service are boring and ugly. Yes, it can be a bit “clunky” to use. But it is pretty simple and easy to learn to use and if used properly, can be a valuable marketing tool for your club.
Before you go ahead with setting up this service, consider the following:
1. Are you going to keep the site active? If you or someone in your club isn’t going to update information on the site at least fortnightly, then don’t bother. Websites need to be kept active and up to date, other the message you’re sending out is that your club is not active.
2. Are you going to build a team of assistants? The person setting up the site and getting it going may be you, but I highly recommend training a team of assistants to assist you in maintaining the site. This is important for a number of reasons: firstly, so that there are always at least 2 or 3 club members who know how to maintain the website and secondly, so that you can practice and develop your delegation skills as a leader!
I recommend taking the following steps if you decide to go with this service:
1. Once you’ve gone through the setup process, ask an experienced user to spend a little time explaining how to use the service. For example, how to add member names, photos and graphics, hyperlinks and how to edit the ‘HTML’ pages.
2. Speak to other club members about what they want the website to do. What information do you want to include? What is your purpose in building and maintaining the site? This is when I would recommend forming a team or committee to assist you.
3. Look at other FreeToastHost websites around District 70 (I recommend Hornsby District Toastmasters and Berowra Toastmasters, but I might be biased…) to see what other clubs have done with their websites. Then it’s worth mapping out your website so you know what you want to do with it.
4. Once you’ve made your decisions on what you want to do, check with the District 70 Guidelines for the requirements for your website. Make sure your website is set up in line with what you need to do.
5. Now you can go about populating your website with content – I suggest doing this all in one hit. That way, no one will see your website in “test mode”.
6. Once your site is setup, I recommend getting a domain name and domain redirection service. I went with NetRegistry – they were fast, easy to use and cheap (it costs about $25 a year for the services you need).
7. In no particular order:
a) Let the District 70 Webmaster know about your website so they can post a link to it on their website.
b) Apply for a search engine listing on Google (if you search Google using that exact phrase, you’ll come up with a easy to follow instructions on how to do this)
c) Apply for a listing on Google Maps – once again, a quick search on how to do this will give you the results you need. This is a good idea as it direct more traffic in your direction. It also makes it easier for people to find your club.
Once you’re all set up, be sure to keep the site content active. Hornsby District Toastmasters has kept their front page as a news service, with information about the club activities and events posted regularly. I highly recommend this approach and when you look at their site, you’ll see why…
Over the next 6 months, I will be exploring different options for websites you set up “from scratch” – stay tuned for the results of my explorations in this area and good luck setting up your sites!
